126 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



feet thick. Of the upper group he says that it has over 4,000 feet 

 of beds. 



Mr. Faribault has been working on these rocks (the gold-bearing 

 rocks of Nova Scotia) for more than twenty years, in various parts of 

 eastern Nova Scotia, and has found these thicknesses much below the 

 actual bulk of this great system. Thus, he found the quartzite group 

 in Moose river gold district in Halifax County attains a thickness of 

 three miles, and the upper slate division in Eawdon, Hants County, 

 a thickness of two miles. Twenty-six thousand feet is an enormous 

 thickness for a single series of sedimentary rocks to possess, where 

 this series is not swollen by the accession of volcanic deposits or coarse 

 conglomerates, and throws it out of relation of the true Camhrian of 

 the Maritime Provinces of Canada, as exhibited in its two areas N.W. 

 and N.E. of the region occupied by the gold-bearing series. The 

 part of the St. John Group (Cambrian) which corresponds lithologically 

 to the Gold-bearing series in Nova Scotia, viz. : Divisions 2 and 3, does 

 not exceed in thickness 2,700 to 3,000 feet, and so is only about one- 

 eighth of the bulk of the great Nova Scotian gold-bearing series. 



Moreover, we do not find that a single characteristic Cambrian 

 fossil has been found in Nova Scotian gold-bearing series, so that 

 neither by lithological nor fossiliferous proof is this terrane to be 

 referred to the Cambrian. 



We find the nearest parallel to this great Nova Scotian ten-ane 

 in the Intermediate System of Alexander Murray, in Newfoundland. 



Murray's exposition of the bulk and succession of these rocks, as 

 given in his report ^ is : — 



FEET. 



Quartzites, diorites, etc 1,300 



Slate conglomerate and slate 1,650 



Green, red, purple and vrhite weathering slates 



in frequent alternations 3,300 



Dark brown or blackish slates, with ripple 



marks on some surfaces 2.000 



8,250 

 The Signal Hill sandstones is added to these: — 



Gray fine-grained sandstones 1,300 



Dark red sandstone 1,320 



Eed conglomerate, quartz and pebbles. 500 



3,120 



11,370' 



• Geol. Surv. of Newfoundland, p. 145. 



